2018 Fall Mailer spoilers and/or comments

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 7:34 pm

Nomad wrote:

FLOYD1 wrote:

Nomad wrote:

With a small squad I managed to pick up my 4th title fight. I did lose it to move my record in TC fights to 1-3, but I got there!

This is awesome. Which warrior was yours Nomad ?

Delphic Casino from the team Mistakes in Myth. Initiates. To call it a title fight is a bit of an exaggeration from my side. The other guy was 14-0 and my guy was 12-2. It was a final, but only a true title fight for my opponent.

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 7:36 pm

Nomad wrote:

FLOYD1 wrote:

Nomad wrote:

With a small squad I managed to pick up my 4th title fight. I did lose it to move my record in TC fights to 1-3, but I got there!

This is awesome. Which warrior was yours Nomad ?

Delphic Casino from the team Mistakes in Myth. Initiates. To call it a title fight is a bit of an exaggeration from my side. The other guy was 14-0 and my guy was 12-2. It was a final, but only a true title fight for my opponent.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

TC List (manager and style):

Primus: TMM (AB)
Contenders: TMM (AB)
Eligibles: TMM (AB)
ADM: HW (WS)
Freshmen: Hombre (BA)
Challengers: TUM (AB)
Champions: TMM (LU)
Adepts: HW (AB)
Initiates: Floyd (ST)
Apprentices: TDO (ST)
Rookies: HW (LU)
Dead Challengers: Anarchist (LU)
Dead Champions: Floyd (ST)
Dead Adepts: Floyd (AB)
Dead Initiates: OAB (AB)
Dead Apprentices: TDO (LU)

TMM: 4
HW: 3
Floyd: 1+2
TDO: 1+1
TUM: 1
Hombre: 1
Anarchist: 0+1
OAB: 0+1

AB: 5+2
LU: 2+2
ST: 2+1
WS: 1
BA: 1

Advanced Expert Poster Joined: Jul 15, 2014 Posts: 192

Monday Morning Tourney Quarterback, brought to you by Mars, Inc. ™

Welcome to the Halloween Edition of Monday Morning Tourney Quarterback (MMTQB), brought to you by Mars, Inc. ™, the world’s leading (and local to me) confectionary company! Goodnessknows ™ that much time was spent preparing for this tourney, then even more time spent watching the fights and then endless, often painful, review and re-review of the tape. As Forrest Gump’s mom told him, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.” And that was certainly the case this tourney. Let’s go to the tape!

For those tl;dr folks out there, here were the goals and results:

1. Better my 52.66% W/L record from the July FTF. I break it out to two digits because of the miniscule improvement from April’s 52.09%. I may need those extra digits! Result: FAIL
2. Achieve a 10% Award status. Result: SUCCESS* * see legal disclaimer
3. Achieve a 10 wins or better average for my award winners. April was 10.4 and July was spot on 10. Result: FAIL
4. Beat a Floyd warrior in the runoffs. This would, of course, require actually getting to the runoffs. Result: SUCCESS, but I really, really should have been more specific.

Awards of the week

I Dove® into tourney prep with a vengeance this go round. After all, this tourney is one of those valuable quarterly Combos®, where you can not only push your proven winners and stout rookies into the scrum, but also look back over battles and bottles past for the old friends, now passed, that you miss the most.

Ultimately, I patted the butts (or butt bones) of 55 live and 21 dead warriors, ranging from the cutest ladybug-costumed rookies toddling out onto the sands for their first trick or treat to truly nightmarish veterans that were often able to convince weaker opponents that, yeah, they probably did have a couple more pieces of candy somewhere to add to my warriors’ pumpkin buckets. 60 of the 76 came back with mostly empty buckets and chocolate-covered, sheepish grins. Six of them, having apparently overdosed on sugar, didn’t come back at all. Despite all my “encouragement” from past tourneys, three unfortunates wound up with seven wins. Of those, one committed suicide at 7-2 rather than come home one win short of a TV. Another of the three was already dead, so that just left me one particular lunger to make an example of. And that I will. Seven, however, came back with Giant Chocolate Covered Strawberry trophies for achieving Tournament Victor status. There were no Tournament Champions this go round – more on that later – and, thus, no coveted Snake Oil Salesman ™ bottles of Snake Oil; however, two warriors Runner Upped and got to admire Howlin Wolf's The Mack’s, and Floyd’s Cat Scratch Fever’s autographed bottles from up close.

The seven TV’s consisted of 3 strikers, two ABs, a lunger, and a parry-riposte. One Revels® to find such diversity of success!

* With 7 TVs, the uninformed would think I just missed the Make Alastari Great Again (MAGA) Manager litmus test of 10% awards by a narrow margin. However, under well-established theorums of floating-point rounding arithmetic – as well as legal precedent established by my last TC – a Runner Up counts as slightly more than 1 TV, 1.255 TVs to be exact. So, like the Romans, I nailed it.

Stats of the week

Overall, we managed 214-194-5-7, or 52.45%. This means we failed the goal to improve on the last outing but continue to stay above .500, which, in itself, is a worthy goal. One of the newly, dearly departed was a 17-17-x-21 AB that, as mentioned previously, went out at 7-2-0-1 courtesy Mannequin’s Little Buddy. Rumor had it that there was a Bounty® on her head. You can be sure you’ll see her next year on the sands.

Best class(es): We, pardon the pun, killed in Adepts classes of any sort, running 70% in the live and 67% in the dead, which resulted in many Celebrations®.

Worst class(es): Live Champs, which came in at 37.5%, was the worst and a bit of an outlier.

Best style(s): AB’s at 60%, followed closely by ST’s at 54%.

Worst style(s): BA/SL’s at 0%. More on this below.

Quote(s) of the week

“You are very amiable, no doubt, but you would be charming if you would only depart.” – Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers

I felt the source of this reference apropos in several ways, perhaps first and foremost because I had three deep TVs in this class. Second, Mars, Inc. ™, the owner of 3Musketeers® paid me to use it. Finally, Howlin Wolf’s The Mack really did need to depart. When my Inits 3rd place finisher ST from DC ran into him in round 11, The Mack was 8-2 and my guy, with Master Attack, couldn’t hit him and was eliminated. When my Inits TC striker from the April mailer with Master +3 Attack ran into him in round 13, my guy couldn’t hit him and was eliminated. When my 5th place finisher in Inits from the April mailer with AMAS Attack ran into The Mack in round 15, it turned out to be the finals. And (this is my shocked face), she couldn’t hit him and was eliminated. This was my first Runner Up so pretty excited about that. Props to The Mack for coming into round 10 at 8-2, singlehandedly eliminating all three of my Musketeers and taking the crown at 13-2.

“Kragar, you know how a chamber pot gets when it isn't emptied for a few days?”
“Yeah?”
“And you know how, when you finally do empty it, there's all that stuff stuck on the bottom?
“Yeah?”
“Well, that stuff stuck on the bottom is how I feel about this.” – Steven Brust, Yendi

Dead Adepts was a journey and a fitting fable around being careful what you wish – or set goals -- for. I entered six nice warriors in this class, three of which were perfectly timed at 20FE. But it was the 13FE and 15FE gladiators, ignoring the Snickers® from the crowd, that showed up to dance. The 13 FE warrior ripped of an 8-0 start and went on to TV, barely, as the lack of FE caught up to him in the runoffs and he was easily knocked out by Otto’s Klick.

But, as Arlo Guthrie once said, “that’s not what I came to talk about.” Reimagine came into Dead Adepts as a 15FE warrior. He barely got out of the gate after a knockdown, drag out with someone’s PS, Marik Blood. But he squeaked a “W” out of that matchup and then went on a roll, dodging and riposting the faster offensives and generally getting the jump on slower warriors and maintaining enough INI to take them out. He had a close win in round 6 against one of Jerman’s ABs and was one-shotted to desperation in Round 9 by a midget Assault Alpha but riposted. Rounds 11 and 13 brought my warrior face to face with two Floyd warriors, Gypsy Rider and Cat Scratch Fever, respectively. A quick smack from Gypsy knocked the weapon out of Reimagine’s hand and had him gravely injured, but he found another weapon and gave as good as he got, pulling off the win. Cat, on the other hand, was a straight forward win that was never in doubt.

At this point, I realized I had achieved the goal I set: To defeat a Floyd warrior in the runoffs!

Two more fights brought a quick win against Assur’s Uncontrollable warrior and a nail-biter against Otto’s Klick to put them both out. Suddenly, I realized, Reimagine was 15-0. Holy crap! When I saw Cat Scratch Fever in round sixteen at 14-2, I was pretty confident this was both the finals and my next TC. Three chances for my guy to put down a warrior he took out easily three fights earlier. Only needed one.

In retrospect, I set the wrong goal. The goal should have been to defeat Floyd’s warrior in the finals. And I paid dearly. Cat Scratch Fever won the first, second and third finals fights to put Reimagine down and claim the TC. Props to Floyd and his warrior, because it became increasingly apparent over the four fights that Cat Scratch was better and just warming up for his Marathon® victory. The fourth fight was easily won by him.

What loser goes into the finals at 15-0 against someone at 13-2 he’s already beaten and walks away with a Runner Up? This guy! Embarassed

“Styles like BA, SL, and ST, favorites be damned, you want to run 10-10 in minute 1” – One Armed Bandit

I went 0-14-0-3 with all eight BAs and SLs that I entered. All were running 10-10 in minute 1. I want to bask in that for a moment. After all, one Revels® in perfection of any form. My total Galaxy® of SLs and BAs went winless and died often. And these weren’t mediocre warriors. These weren’t Maltesers®. These were three SLs and 5 BAs that ran Initiates through Dead Adepts, with a long stop in Rookies. Warriors like a N/G rookie basher with ST=15 CN=10 SZ=4 WT=21 WL=13 SP=14 DF=7 starting with 12 DEC, 9 ATT, 10 RIP and 11 INI. And two 17/21 SLs. Not many made it back from the slaughter but those that did came back home proudly displaying their “See you in Tempe!” coffee mugs which all the other managers had autographed.

“There’s a certain frustration that players of S’yang Stones get when their best shots fail and their opponents keep getting lucky breaks. I’ve seen it, and I’ve had it happen to me. You start just throwing your stones, even the flat ones, almost at random, as if you want to punish yourself for your bad luck by playing badly.” – Steven Brust, Dragon

I did poorly in Apprentices this time around. And not great in Rookies. And that coming off a fantastic Adepts round. I’ll be brutally honest. As I read loss after loss and got more and more frustrated, I began to wish harm upon my warriors. This was probably exacerbated by the Orange Sheet Slide ™ approach to reading the tourney. I wanted them dead. I wanted their paper warrior families dead. I wanted to stop wasting my time with losers. Like in The Breakfast Club… “I won’t tolerate any losers in this family!” Before anyone calls any authorities on me, I want to be clear we’re talking about paper warriors and there’s a damn good reason I wanted them dead: I had a limited stack of paper yet to read. Every additional wasted opportunity for my losers to throw in the towel and, instead, sally forth and carry on and, ultimately, lose anyway, meant that the unread warriors following them had less paper on which to excel. Like many, in past tourneys I’ve seen a paltry pile of porous paper remaining for my gazillion dead entries and realized, with no small measure of disgust, that, well, probably none of THEM got out! They have to go ten rounds and there aren’t ten pieces of paper left!

“There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance

I’m a competitive soul and, without putting too sharp an edge on it, I admire and am loosely envious of the Megas for their prowess and success. I am equally prone to oblivion that there may be some players out there who have tried just as hard, or harder, than I have and met with less success. What I am utterly certain of is that I have tremendously enjoyed the opportunity to learn from fellow managers, on Chatzy, at the FTF’s and on the sands. Equally, I have enjoyed taking what I think I have learned and testing it, trying it, experimenting with it. And failing with it. Time, and time, and time again. And, occasionally, seeing some small success. I’ve never had a runner up in five + years but managed two this tourney. I’ve never gotten someone back from the dead in four previous attempts but managed four this tourney. As Don Henley said at the Eagles induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “I like to think of this award as acknowledging us -- not for being famous -- but for doing the work.” And, in this instance, the work is so much fun.

Factoids that may only interest me

I. My average wins per TV dropped slightly from last tournament due to many of them just squeaking the TV in at eight wins. Result is 9.86 and caused me to miss one goal.

II. My Winless Warrior % skyrocketed from 16% to 34% across both live and dead. I was shocked to see that. I mean, I get some of them. For example, my Twix® warriors (see what I did there?) were all entered. But, by and large, these were quality warriors. Not one had a WT less than 17. In the dead, all but one were 21 WT. There were numerous former TVs. There were a lot of styles that do well in tourneys, e.g. STs, LUs, ABs… There was a stat switch warrior in there. Anyway, that is one I am going to have to dig into because, frankly, it is frightening.

III. My deaths from the live crew didn’t climb any higher than Apps, which is good.

IV. This tourney generated a good amount of funny text recognition issues, with my favorite being “He fails into the sand!” My guys did that a lot this tourney.

Mr. United Global Services Member Travel Note

On my last trip to Europe, I flew a United Polaris class equipped plane for the second time. “Polaris” represents United’s move to a two-class aircraft with Economy (and its related subclasses) and Polaris, that falls somewhere between the traditional Business and First. It is intended to be a step up from the old Business class – which is certainly is – and comparable to First, which it does an admirable job of attempting but doesn’t quite achieve. Sitting in my Polaris seat, which I certainly recommend if you get a chance (your own seat, not mine), I got to thinking again about prized warriors vs regular warriors. Regular warriors are like Polaris class with Prized warriors being First. Both present a chance at an enjoyable experience, but there is no substitute for First if you want to maximize that chance. My Live Runner Up was a prized warrior. My Dead Runner Up was not. But both TCs they lost to were "First Class!"

Brief truths

A. There is a world of difference between having the first tourney fights you read result in a TC, which happened when Ruff was my only champ and champs my highest class, vs having every warrior in the first class you read lose their first fight, as happened in this tourney, also in the champs class.

B. It is incredibly deflating to see your new clone, whose favorites you know, walk onto the sands with the wrong weapon.

C. It is incredibly nice to have a clone.

Ten things I think I think

1. I think the mailer format is a pretty cool nuance and counterpoint to the FTF. I think it encourages hybrids and also think that’s a good thing.

2. I think remembering to wear APL / L vs ABs and maybe BAs did some good.

3. I think I have a lot of thoughts on Decise. I think I am no longer as certain that (SS / DA) > (SC / HA) in terms of the ST decise battles after losing some SS vs. SC battles with my high decise STs. I think 22 DEC is generally insufficient for an Adepts ST. I think I am NOT saying you have to have X DEC for any class because some people get their panties in a twist when people say things like that. Finally, I think I need some strategy to avoid that post-decise battle initial critical attack.

4. I think letting a DMobster OTP get the jump on your ST is embarrassing. I also think it happens way too often. Finally, I think one of my warriors meeting the same angry, offensive DMob TP twice in a row prior to the runoffs is complete bullshit.

5. Conversely, I think having your brand-new OTP match up with a tDO midget demon AB on round one has little recommend it.

6. I think I paid a lot more attention to kill desire this tourney. I think I’m unclear on the impact, if any, of this effort.

7. I think stat trains were fabulously bad and fell into two categories. Either my warrior missed it, which was most of the time, or they made it but didn’t get the bump the train was intended to effectuate.

8. I think scum don’t really have a place in Inits. I think there may be an exception for PR or maybe PS scum. I think I am not sure that taking out 2 or 3 Init offensives is worth the price of scum admission.

9. I think the Fives Guys Burgers and Fries manager’s lecture dressing down an employee over “fry calibration” would have been a good Quote(s) of the week piece if I could have figured out how to tie it to DM.

10. I think these are the other things I think this week:

a. I think the strategy of sending a PR or a WS in hot against ABs has provided me with limited success. I think I may need to consider an ALE defensive strategy with some of them to try to parry out the FI ones.

b. Winenerdness: As I write this, I sit with a bowl of pasta and a glass of Chianti or, more specifically, Chianti Classico. Made generally with the Sangiovese grape, Chianti got a deservedly bad rep many years ago when the region had no structure and was pushing out shit wine. The rep has never quite recovered. The wine most certainly has. BoV and I had the chance to go to Tuscany recently and learned a lot about the history, the grapes, the wine and the rooster. They’ve gotten much, much better. One of the vineyards we had a chance to visit was the Vecchie Terre di Montefili. One of the three founders and owners, Nicola, has a restaurant in New York, I Trulli, that I truly hope to hit soon to congratulate him on some really nice Chianti. In any event, I encourage you to try a Riserva some time or, at least, learn about the Chianti Rooster!

c. I still think riposte learns are generally for losers in the same way that political posters in Halloween parades or "sample ballots" at the polling stations are. I didn’t notice an inordinate amount of political posters in this year's parade.

d. I think I will no longer enter Poor endurance, Good damage ST or BAs.

e. I still think that the Responsiveness tactic warrants additional consideration, both as a lead off and in desperation. I think it doesn’t help much to send in your PS with a strategy based on this just to have them meet up with 4 LUs, 2 ABs and a PL. I think entering a warrior counting on them to encounter, and defeat, certain styles shows generally poor judgment.

f. I think I love rookie LUs who are +4 DEC.

g. Coffeenerdness: As I’ve said before, the SBUX app is ridiculously easy and efficient. You get free drinks for using it. You don’t wait in line. Your favorite orders are one touch away. Literally every time I use it I think back to when I used to wait in line to place my order and shake my head ruefully. I now do the same thing every time I read and record a mailer as I go. I think back sadly to when I would quickly ready through a mailer and then agonize over the long, painful recording process. And shake my head. Recording as I read is so much better than what I used to do.

h. I think fights involving your little-damage, open handed AB make for fun, if ultimately disappointing, reading.

i. I think when my AB gets the jump on a Howlin Wolf ST there is cause for concern. I think I want to know how other managers make STs and SLs dodge and parry-machines.

j. I think mailers present more junk warriors who don’t follow established rules of engagement and can randomly tack a loss on your warrior. I think their managers should be shot.

k. I think there is bittersweet joy in having the crap you knew you shouldn’t have entered in the first instance get eliminated after just two fights. I think it’s a bonus if they die on round one.

l. I think giving your warrior a name with the initials of TV or TC doesn’t necessarily help in that endeavor.

m. Obit of the Week: A 9-7-8-17-17-5-21 AB Obit-it at 7-2. Silver lining playbook: Dead Apps.

Who I like in January

I’m pretty stacked with really good basic warriors for January, assuming nothing calamitous between now and then. So I suspect January will be a fall off the cliff for me. I call Jerman to Runner Up. Exclamation

You heard it here first.

Adieu Haiku

M&Ms® eaten,
Finally, dead warriors back
Need more “First Class” folk!

Master Poster Joined: Aug 11, 2002 Posts: 242

Well I still haven't received my tourney, not sure if anyone else is still waiting for theirs. I finally broke down and asked if someone could mail the newsletter to me and that's how I found I out I TC'd. (Thanks to those of you who emailed me the newsletter, and thanks to Managerr for being the go-between)

I only sent about 5 freshman, 1 challenger, and 2 Contenders (who were 0-5 type warriors, just needed trains). I had high hopes for Cuda initially, having a Grand+1 in attack in Freshman, but after a couple 3-3s and a 5-3, I knew I would have to bust him to have any shot. So he went into the freeze at 24(+12)-4-14-21-25(+ Cool

-6-11. He got 12 strength trains relatively easy, and was also +3 init and +4 att. I know he got 3 Wit trains before the tourney, but I have no idea how he trained during. So he went in with Master +7 Init, Grand +4 in Att, and only Master +5 in Dec. so I was worried he could get jumped. All I know is that he did beat a Striker in the finals, so that was huge. Stoked I TC'd, and even more-so that it was with a basher and not an AB since they are awful and have ruined the game. Congrats to all of those that TC'd (unless they were ADM-level ABs) and to those of you who enjoyed your tourney!

Master Poster Joined: Aug 11, 2002 Posts: 242

Weird - that should have read 24(+12)-4(+1)-14-21-25(+ Cool

-6-11. Not sure why the happy face, but it was enjoyable.

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 6:06 am

Hombre wrote:

Weird - that should have read 24(+12)-4(+1)-14-21-25(+ Cool

-6-11. Not sure why the happy face, but it was enjoyable.

The 8 folowed by a ) is what the program uses for a cool face smiley face with sunglasses

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 12:16 pm

Well, I sent out a very small crew, all but one to the dead tourneys. That one went 0-2, which is irritating because now I can only get him to 9 FE before Tempe. One of my dead guys got killed again in the first round. My other guys were just speed bumps for the rest of ya, you're welcome!

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 3:29 am

You aced it, Vlad! Just plain aced it. Exclamation

Such a joy to read. Laughing